Southern French cheese casserole

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 400 g cheese
• 12 slices of farmer’s bread / rye bread
• ½ liter beef broth or vegetable broth
• 100 ml white wine
• 1 cup crème fraîche
• e.g. butter, for greasing the casserole dish
• e.g. salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 10 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 40 minutes

good use of leftovers, delicious on cold winter evenings, easy to reheat

This recipe comes from the Pyrenees, where farmers high up in the mountains love a simple, filling meal in the evening. Few ingredients; everything is in the house or, ideally, homemade; nothing needs to be bought. Grease a baking dish with a little butter. If the crust is very hard, remove the crust. Mix the broth with the white wine. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan oven), otherwise 200°C (200°F). Now slice the cheese. It can be Gouda, Emmental, Appenzeller, Butterkäse, Tilsiter, or really any semi-hard cheese; here it’s usually Bethmale, Cantal, or Pyrenean cheese. The bread slices are dipped in the broth before layering; they shouldn’t soak up the liquid and become mushy, but they should be well moistened. Don’t leave them in the broth, or they’ll get mushy. In the baking dish, layer a layer of bread slices, then a layer of cheese slices, add a little salt and pepper, then another layer of bread, cheese, salt and pepper, and so on, until all the bread and cheese is used up. I sometimes use yesterday’s baguette, which works too. Toast tastes too bland. Now bake for about 20 minutes, then spread the crème fraîche on the top layer, bake for another 10 minutes, and serve immediately. I serve it with a green salad with a vinegar and oil vinaigrette, baguette, and red wine. White wine works just as well, though.